


A Place in this World

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders' Era, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-28
Updated: 2009-11-28
Packaged: 2019-01-19 22:55:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,042
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12419982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: Ten things you never knew about these Marauder-era characters.





	1. James Potter

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

** i. ** He came to Hogwarts as an only child – a _pampered_ only child. He was desperate for friends outside of the ones his parents choose for him. So when he met Sirius, who was trying to escape his family’s name, he knew he had found a best friend. And when he met Remus and Peter, it made Hogwarts that much better.

** ii. ** He didn’t think much of Lily Evans, the quiet, bookish, pretty girl, until Third Year. He figured it was because he finally went through puberty, and when he did, he knew Evans was the One.

It just made him angry that she didn’t know, too.

** iii. ** He knew Snape was bad news the first time he met him. Who would want to be in Slytherin, really? So, when he called Lily a Mudblood in front of everyone, he felt it was his job to protect her from someone so vile ”• someone he had been jealous of from Third Year on. Where did Snape get off, being “best friends” with the love of his life?

He didn’t.

** iv. ** It really hurt every time Lily objected him. He started in Fourth Year, and when she did say no, he was hurt. He couldn’t show it, though. He was already a bit of a Nancy in his dorm because he fancied her. But he really did like her, so he didn’t give up.

** v. ** One of the best moments in his life was when Lily exploded at him because he had been talking to another girl. Because that was when she admitted she liked, _finally_ liked, him back. So, he kissed her.

** vi. ** And they got married. He was worried about the war, though. So they got married under tight security ”• it was only him, Lily, the Priest: Sirius, Remus, Alice and Frank Longbottom, and Peter.

** vii. ** The best moment of his life, though, was when he held Harry in his hand for the first time. And when he found out Harry had Lily’s eyes, he was over the moon. They had always joked, the kids from school, that when he and Lily had children, they would look like James, with Lily’s eyes. When he saw his wife’s eyes, in his son’s face, he couldn’t help but start laughing. And when Lily asked what was so funny, he told her, and she couldn’t help but laugh along with him, and reminisce about school days when the kids bet on how long it would take for them to get together.

** viii. ** Sirius was his best friend at Hogwarts. He liked to pretend, in his head, that all the Marauders were equal in his heart, but, really, Sirius was his best friend ”• until he dated Lily. Then, Lily became more than his best friend. She was his wife, and he loved her. Sirius was always just a brother to him after that.

** ix. ** And, when Sirius told them to use Peter as the Secret Keeper, and use him as a cover, he was doubtful. Lily thought it might be better to use Dumbledore as Secret Keeper, and then use Sirius as a cover, but he didn’t mention that he just wanted Sirius only. But Sirius convinced them; he always had a way with words.

Later, he rather regretted it.

** x. ** Not being there for Harry’s life was the worst thing that could’ve happened, and he knew Lily felt the same. Knowing that at any moment, Harry could die. And when he heard how the Dursleys treated Harry for all those years, he wanted to explode. And he knew Lily could never forgive Petunia for that. Petunia was supposed to come through in the end, and take _real_ care of their son.

But she never did.

 


	2. Lily Potter

** i. ** Sev was the biggest disappointment in her life. He had always been there. True, they started drifting apart in First Year and onward, but she still confided in him. He just … pulled out all the stops.

** ii. ** If Sev was her biggest disappointment, Petunia was second. She was Lily’s best friend, until Sev, of course. And Lily thought, maybe, when her dad died in a car crash in Fifth Year (her mum having died when she was on holiday after Second), they’d be real sisters again.

Evidently, they weren’t.

** iii. ** James was never a disappointment, though. He was always there for her: her dad’s death, her Aunt dying of cancer in Sixth Year … you name, he was her rock. She was just so mad it took so long for her to realize he was her One; he’d be there all along.

** iv. ** Alice and Frank Longbottom, her closest friends after Sev, were hopeless. Lily would try everything to get them together, once and for all: dropping heavy hints, making Alice trip into Frank’s arms, and/or locking them in a broom closet together.

(In which they’d spend hours only _talking_.)

** v. ** She liked Amos Diggory in First, Benjy Fenwick in Second, Caradoc Dearborn in Fourth, and Gideon Prewett in Fifth. Problem was, she’d never tell them — or anyone, for that matter.

But James saw the love struck looks sent from across the room. He himself was guilty of the same crime, except at her.

** vi. ** She was always closer to Frank rather than Alice. Maybe she was better at having guy friends, but she couldn’t help it. But Frank was always more open to Alice, and Alice to Lily. So it made a nice, albeit weird, circle of friendship.

** vii. ** She had always hated James guts. _Always_. But after holiday between Sixth and Seventh Year, they made a truce: no fighting.

(Something they loved breaking.)

** viii. ** Being Head Girl was her Number One Goal. That, and get all O’s on her O.W.L.s and N.E.W.T.s. And joining the Order of the Phoenix, having children … 

** ix. ** She was deathly afraid of owls. James had a rouge owl named Bludger, ironically, who got his name because _Lily_ was his favorite target for flying into.

** x. ** She wasn’t afraid of dying; not really. She just didn’t plan on going so soon. At twenty-one! She had been happily married, fighting in the war, just had a baby son James and her adored.

She always knew the world was cruel.


	3. Sirius Black

** i. ** He hated his family. _Hated_ them. Why d’you think he tried so hard to make them hate him in return? He had Gryffindor wall hangings, pictures of Muggle girls, motorcycles — all loved because his family hated them.

(And he never really gave a damn if he wasn’t on the stupid tree.)

** ii.  ** But — but he loved his brother. Regulus used to join him in pissing his parents off. But when he went off to school, and Reg came two years later … well, Sirius could see the change in him. A sneering, Slytherin boy of eleven? Obviously not a brother anymore.

(And yet, he still was.)

** iii.  ** James was his best friend; Remus, his brother. Peter and he weren’t _as_ close, but once a Marauder, always a Marauder. So when James died on him, Sirius was devastated. _James was dead_. It rang in his ears for all of his life. _Lily_ was far less common, _but still_.

** iv.  ** Remus was his rock. And Tonks was Remus’ in turn. Sirius knew that after thirteen years of unemployment and loneliness, Remus was over the moon about having his best friend back; so was Sirius.

** v.  ** Sure, he liked a lot of girls. But he only loved the one he couldn’t have: Alice Longbottom. She was too enamored with Frank to care whether Sirius was finally ready to admit he loved her.

He never did really give up on her. _Alice_ was just as common a ring as _James_ all of those years.

** vi.  ** Harry. Harry, who was so much like James, but yet, more Lily. The perfect mix. Harry and Remus were the only people who were ever able to keep him “sane” all of those years.

** vii.  ** Because Snivellus sure didn’t keep him _sane_. He hated Snivellus. He regretted pulling that . . . prank, sure, but only because James and Remus were so disappointed. Remus for using him; James claimed he was being immature, when he was anything but. But … _Snivellus_. Remus would call Snivellus his foil. Sirius guessed he was if that meant he constantly wanted to _kill him_.

** viii.  ** Tonks was the only _family_ Sirius ever knew. Andromeda never really visited Sirius after he escaped, so he was much closer to Tonks. And Sirius loved the thought of Remus marrying Tonks… 

** ix.  ** Death was bittersweet. Bitter in the sense that he was leaving the people he loved as broken, but sweet because he was going to see James again. Lily again. And — hopefully — _Alice_ , one day.

** x.  ** He was ecstatic at how much he meant to Harry, but down-hearted at the fact that Harry never properly missed Lily and James _. Hopefully_ , Sirius thought, _he’ll find Lily and James’ old school things I left him_.

( _Hopefully_.)


	4. Remus Lupin

** i.  ** Being a werewolf was like having PMS, Sirius always assumed. Except that it was ten times worse, Remus would always add. Not only did Remus get snappy like a teenage girl, but he got _sick_. Terribly sick. And he had to lie constantly: “My grandma died yesterday”; “My mom is ill”. Didn’t anybody ever wonder why his grandma died so many times?

** ii.  ** He hated falling for girls. He thought himself not worthy of them: Marlene, Emmeline, Tonks. But Tonks got rid of that “crazy thought”, as she called it, and married him to shut him up.

** iii.  ** Teddy Lupin was his pride and joy. He loved no one more, except for perhaps Tonks or Sirius. He loved how his hair color changed to clash with Tonks’: When Tonks had pink hair, he had blue. When she had purple, he had yellow. Teddy was always striving to be different, even at his age.

** iv.  ** Peter, Sirius, and James were the _world_ to him when he was young. They all became anamagi for him, for Godric’s sake! _Him._ But then Lily and James died and suddenly Remus found himself crying himself out of tears. James, Remus’ brother, and Lily, one of the only people to ever accept his lycanthropy. (Not that many at school knew.)

** v.  ** And finding out about Sirius, of all people, had betrayed James, and that _Peter_ went after him, hurt him more than he thought possible. He felt betrayed: his two best friends, dead at his _other_ best friend’s hand? No one survives that, Remus believed.

** vi.  ** But when he found out Sirius wasn’t guilty after all, not by a long shot, life was amazing. He just wished Sirius wouldn’t have gone after Peter. _Or, if he had, taken me,_ Remus thought.

** vii.  ** Harry was like an adoptive son to him. The Ministry wouldn’t let him near Harry after his parents’ murder for his identity as a werewolf made him suspicious, no matter what was true. He dearly wanted to see Harry, so he did: He followed him sometimes, even nodding at him if Harry caught him looking in shops or on the street. Remus could tell Harry was definitely magical; he showed all the little signs neither Petunia nor Vernon ever noticed.

** viii.  ** Teaching had always been amazing. Back in the good ol’ days, Remus loved tutoring his peers. And returning to Hogwarts was great. Even if it was without the Marauders, the pranks, Lily and James fighting daily, having friends during his shape-shifting (even if it was peaceful now). . . . Maybe it _wasn’t_ so great, and just a lot of unwanted memories have times gone.

** ix.  ** He never meant to _leave_ Tonks, really. He just . . . freaked out a little as his life caught up with him: He was _married_ , had a real, live _child_ coming! A child who can have bleeding lycanthropy all because of him, the irresponsible father.

** x.  ** Death was peace, at last. He wasn’t a wolf, and he was reunited with Tonks, Sirius, James, and Lily. He regretted the fact that he couldn’t raise his son properly, but Harry and Andromeda would care for him, and Remus, though selfish, was just _happy_ with his wife and best friends.

** Peter's coming. And hopefully Alice and Frank (someday). **


End file.
